- My bus! Bye. - Bye.
It happens to all of us at some point.
One wonders: "What's wrong with me?
"This used to be easy."
Hello, Mr Dachmann.
Hello, Connie.
What's wrong with him?
Why is he so out of shape?
"That's life!", he presumes.
"The old ticker.
"I'm growing old."
So much resignation.
Heart rate monitoring.
This is an unusual strain, and quite an effort for him.
"Is this really necessary?", he wonders.
"I'm not that young anymore."
Actually, nor is he
in shape.
Please, lie down.
Hesitantly and slowly,
his heart rate returns
to 72 beats per minute.
His unfit heart needs almost ten minutes to do so.
Again, the harried question:
"Is something wrong with me?"
The doctor knows such cases all too well.
He has prescribed exercise,
regular exercise.
Body performance depends on muscle strength.
Insufficiently exercised muscles lose range,
and performance capability.
The heart is a muscle too.
If you don't exercise it enough because of your lifestyle,
it will shrink,
and lose strength.
Then, when you're physically active, it will fail to meet
the tissues' quickly-rising need for oxygen-rich blood.
Only regular training
will maintain its potential
up to the age of 50 or 60.
It's up to us.
We sit a lot, we drive instead of walking.
We exert ourselves less and less.
Man has become an observer of production processes.
It can be fun,
to be physically active .
A human being, even in this age of technical progress,
is still an organism, with hands,
feet and muscles.
And especially, an organism
with a heart muscle.
Society claims our head,
but it is part of our body too.
Fit or not fit? That is the question.
Six months after the first test.
- Please, lie down. - OK.
This time, the heart rate comes down easily.
The result is visibly better.
Rule of thumb:
Exercise should enable the heart
to reach 170 beats per minute
minus the person's age.
That's the recipe for success.
Why continue?
You can't store the benefits of exercise.
Get into the habit of exercising.
- What's he doing? - He's crazy.
Forgive them,
for they don't understand what they don't do.
In other words, he has understood.
BE SMART LIVE HEALTHY
GERMAN HYGIENE MUSEUM IN THE GDR
Subtitles: N. Kessel, T. Close-Koenig & E. Fuchs